Parenting with a bit of ice and fire.

Menu

Monthly Archives: June 2014

We’ve had such a busy weekend but I’m counting down the days because it’ll be the school holidays soon and we may have a little excursion scheduled… more details later on! 😉

But anyway, this weekend was the first time I played paintball! Some people were quite surprised at this – perhaps because I seemed to know what it was about, or at least pretended to know? I’ve always wanted to play it but wasn’t allowed because it was too dangerous, and never really had an occasion to do so until this weekend.

So, we got all suited up – it was a press stud suit and reminded me of putting a jumpsuit on Jacob (who was being babysat). I smuggled my phone in and took a couple of photos:

I had an awesome first round as I got up to a good spot and managed to shoot a lot of people (won some extra points, whoopee!). I think I have it quite easy because I’m a difficult target to hit – I was easily one of the smallest and shortest in my group. The second and third round weren’t as great for me because I kept getting headshots so I couldn’t see. One of them went straight through my vents and gave me a mouthful of paint! I ended up looking like this:

Anyway, it was good fun but I must admit that it is one expensive game! It was like $20 for 100 paintballs – it got cheaper if you bought them in bulk, but you get the gist. As a result, we had to be quite sparing with our shots (which can be hard when you’re being shot at right left and centre). I probably couldn’t afford to play this game too often, but I had an awesome time (despite the scratches and bruises)! A nice hot shower was in order, especially since we were rained on once or twice in the course of the day.

Playing paintball got me thinking about some of the things I used to do that I don’t anymore. I was never the sporty type (more because I didn’t really stick at a sport long enough to be good at it) but I was, at some point of my life, quite fit. I was probably in the prime of my life at National Service – I was toughened by circumstance, strengthened by faith and agile as anything. My team won quite a few things and I kinda looked a bit tomboyish, to a point that I had a girl hit on me!.

I don’t think I was ever good at riding a bike, but here I am in a helmet anyway. I had very short hair for the first few years of my life and my mum said I was often mistaken for a boy (much to her annoyance).

And here’s Mowgli. Oh wait, no, that’s me. Sorry it’s blurry as it was me taking a photo of an old photo. I love swimming (though I’m a bit lazy of late) and used to go fishing with my dad; not rod fishing, but fishing with a jala (net). The net itself was pretty heavy and a lot of the time, we got fish by knocking them out with the weights rather than getting them caught in the net.

Back in the day, when I used to do martial arts, I used to think I was pretty tough. I used to enjoy hanging out with the boys, but come to think of it now, any girl could have done what I did. I used to think that I stood out because I was the girl, and perhaps that was the case to an extent, but I think what’s most important is that it was me being me. I really enjoyed getting roughed up and rolling in the mud, as opposed to getting dolled up with makeup and dresses.

I admit that I’ve toned down of late, perhaps because I’m considered more a ‘woman’ than a ‘girl’ now, and because I play roles like ‘wife’ and ‘mum’ where tomboy doesn’t always fit in the picture. Or does it? I know that the main reason I’ve stopped martial arts is because I need that time for my family – time to prepare and eat a family meal and to get the little one bathed and tucked into bed. I don’t indulge in adventure so much anymore because I’m saving money for family outings and little occasional trips. But I think, deep down, I’m still a tomboy at heart.

I am excited at the prospect of bringing up a little boy – it’s almost like a second childhood for myself. I look forward to learning to play a sport with him, taking him camping, teaching him martial arts moves, riding a bike with him (pedal-type and motorized maybe?), letting him get dirty and not complaining (there’s always Vanish to get rid of mud stains), etc. And one day, he’ll grow up into a man but I hope he’ll still see me as a fun mum who shared similar interests with him.

But I’ve thought to myself before – what if I had a girl first? Would I have bought all things pink and completely changed the decor in my nursery? Would I be playing with dolls instead of cars? I don’t know. Maybe, if I have another child and it happens to be a girl, I will find out. But for now, I’m perfectly happy indulging in boys toys.

Speaking of boys, here are some shots from this week! Here he is with his cousin playing the piano – what musical geniuses they are!

Here he is helping daddy with Maths.

Here he is watching the footy. Adelaide Crows had a great win so I let Jacob wear his Crows scarf around.

Was it really 10 months ago that my little boy was a fresh new face into this world? I can’t even fathom how much our lives have changed in that time, but it’s been a wonderful time!

Here is my 10 month old cherub, thinking “Mum, why would you make me wear this hat?”

He’s not walking yet, which is a relief, though he does like to scale areas like the playpen or the sides of the sofa. He is an avid crawler though, and gets around very quickly (and follows me around the house like a pet! Awww…)

He’s covered with yoghurt in the above pic, which is supposedly one of his favourite foods except he doesn’t take anything from a spoon now. He loved having food pouches squirted into his mouth, but mostly he loves handling his own food, as messy as it can be. Favourites are (in stick form) carrots, broccoli and asparagus as well as apples, bananas and strawberries. He’s also at the “dropping” stage where everything he eats goes on the floor at least once. Sigh. At least it builds immunity?

Sleep-wise, he’s not too bad lately. We had a few issues when he was growing teeth (his fifth and six ones are already on the way!), but we have also had a few nights where he’s slept through (which is BLISS).

He loves the outdoors – being pushed in the pram in the reserve, playing on grass, watching dogs play, etc. It is getting a little cold and rainy now that it’s winter, but we still get a chance to have a play outside once in a while.

He’s still a sociable baby and loves meeting other people at the social things we do each week, like church, charity work and meeting up with friends/family.

I can’t deny that I am SO proud of my little boy and what he’s become (even if he is a bit of a rascal at times). I look forward to many more days, months and years full of joy and fun with our little family! ❤

On a final note, I’m feeling generous so I’m running an EOFY sale with 20% off ALL wall stickers. Get the promo code on our Facebook page and thanks in advance! Have a great week everyone!

I apologise for taking so long to write another post – maybe I’ll just have to take a step back and do only 2 posts a week (which seems to be the case anyway). I’ve been doing a bit of driving later and am going to put up a couple of posts about the gorgeous little towns tucked away in the Adelaide Hills.

But anyway, on to this post. Have you seen Memes about scumbag babies? I always thought they were relatively funny (until I actually realised that babies actually do those things).

Here are some examples (and disclaimer – these are not my images so if you click on them, they go to the original websites where I got them):

Here are a few scumbag things Jacob has done in the last few months (or as far as I remember anyway):

– He refuses to eat his food and throws it on the floor. But then he’ll try to eat food on the floor, and cry when I try to take it away from him.

– So, he’s playing in his playpen with plastic balls and throws a ball out, then cries and wants to get it (despite there being like a hundred other balls in the playpen?)

– He has a hundred toys to play with but insists on playing/biting my shoes. It doesn’t matter if he’s in a different room – he will go searching for my shoes to bite them.

– When I try to take a video of him laughing, he stops laughing the moment I start recording.

– When we watch movies at night after we put him to bed, he’ll wake up and cry right at the climatic parts of the show. And refuse to go back to sleep.

In all truth, he’s a good baby and is tolerant of my agenda. I do quite a few things and drag him along on my excursions, but he’s fairly patient and I think it’s all a give and take thing (and timing is so important). For example, with our road trip today, I timed it with his naps so for most of the car trip, he was asleep. He got to meet Nanny and cousin Esther at lunch (and I got this gorgeous shot with both of them smiling):

And because he was a bit squirmy, I stopped at a playground and let him play on the swing. I know it’s a blurry picture, but it’s a happy one.

And for the grand finale(s), I’d just like to redirect you to a site about “Reasons why my toddler is crying” – there’s a full website where people upload them by the day, but here are some of my favourites.

So, I’m finally going to tell you all what I’ve been up to with this business. I have bought an online wall sticker business!! Yippie!! Okay, I think I’m getting overexcited here, but I’m really quite happy to have a pet project to work on (which hopefully will make me a bit of money, or at least earn my capital back for a start).

Why “Cutie Pie Stickers”, you may ask? Well, I actually didn’t choose the name because I didn’t start the business from scratch. Looking at the platform that it uses, in retrospect, I could have actually started something like it but I think it would have taken me quite a bit of time and skill to develop. And it’s hard when Jacob’s awake because he automatically wants to use my computer every time I’m on it. Or he does things like break my home entertainment speakers or the blinds like he did when I was doing some editing work the other day. Le sigh.

Here is my cute little boy, my mascot, on the swings – he loved being pushed though he nearly fell out because he insisted on leaning forward:

Here are some of our awesome stickers on the website (which actually link you to the page too if you click on them):

How about some cute alphabet stickers for your baby’s nursery, playroom or even all around the house?

There’s just something about birds in their little birdhouses that make one feel happy and joyful.

All things French seem to be the way to go in home decor – this would look awesome on a feature wall.

There’s nothing cooler than Spiderman breaking through your wall.

For the music lovers. 🙂

I’m shopping around for more wall sticker designs as well and I also promise that I’ll have more boyish designs (think superheroes!). I’m also looking for good quotes to add to the list, cos I love to put up a good quote somewhere that I’ll see often, to put a smile on my face.

Anyway, please wish me luck! I am new to this game and any advice is most welcomed. Also, I might mention that I may be interested in getting some Australian-based bloggers to do reviews of my products for me. If you’re keen, just drop me a comment below or contact me on the Contact Me page on the Cutie Pie Stickers website.

Okay, I broke my promise and didn’t blog before the weekend! I guess a lot of things take priority over blogging unfortunately (i.e. feeding, changing, playing with baby, etc.) but I have been productive too, which is really great.

I might note that this is one of the few long weekends we have in Australia in conjunction with the Queen’s Birthday. Hooray for queens being born! 🙂 But really, it’s great to have Dan at home to spend some time with Jacob (and in turn, I can spend a bit of time setting up that little venture that I’m working on. Details soon!).

Firstly, random question – which of the following do you think Jacob would be most keen on eating? (Orange, Strawberry or Kiwifruit)

Answer: His own foot! I don’t know why he sits like that but he usually ends up like that by the end of every meal. Sometimes, when he’s wearing socks, he pulls them off and chews them. Odd baby. But really, I think he likes kiwifruit the best out of the three (though it might just be a passing fad).

On Saturday, we discovered a new game – air hockey but using a baby instead of a puck. Jacob was crawling around aimlessly so I set him down on the table, but he decided to continue crawling around. So some of us urged him on to crawl to us and very soon it became a back-and-forth thing. He thought we were chasing him and found it hilarious.

In all seriousness, it is a long way to the ground for that table so we were keeping full attention on him. It’s funny how, because of previous tumbles that he’s had before, that he knows when he’s in trouble. When he loses his footing at times, you can see the expression on his face change to shock – but if he’s saved by something or someone, relief comes over him and he sometimes laughs. Funny little boy he is.

One reason why I’d never make a good food blogger is because I always forget to take pictures of the food! Today we went out to breakfast at Virginia Nursery, which is an oasis out in a rural-ish farming area. Most of our friends (including Dan) had Eggs Florentine which was simply divine – I pigged out a bit and had a full vegetarian breakfast. All this was topped with the delicious Vienna Chocolates we had (and Jacob had a tiny spoonful of cream).

Another thing on the agenda for us was to go to have a look at a pram at someone’s house near that nursery. Yes, I’ve officially joined the “multiple prams” gang. I know people with up to 4 prams for different uses/occasions! Our rationale was to get a pram for travel – while our red one (Steelcraft Compact) is strong and sturdy, it’s a bit too bulky to travel with.

Jacob’s very first pram ride! We only bought the pram after he was born, so he came along to choose his pram!

Initially I was thinking of buying the cheapest pram possible (maybe the Kmart or Big W pram) but was concerned that it’d either be too flimsy or too uncomfortable for Jacob. So, I resorted to my favourite place to grab bargains – Gumtree! I found an awesome Steelcraft Express that was almost brand new for just $40!

It’s so new that the plastic is still on the footrest! Not sure if Jacob approves of it, but time will tell…

On a final note, silly me was cooking with my hair untied; I reached to get something and burned my hair! I hate burned hair because it gets all frizzy and smelly! (and yes, I’ve done it a few times before). I couldn’t be bothered going to a salon so I just gave myself a haircut! What do you think?

Okay, my hair might just be getting a tad bit too bushy. I love having thick hair but really, it can get rather forest-like at times. Oh wait, you weren’t looking at me or my hair – you were looking at my gorgeous little boy. And that’s fine by me. 🙂

Eeeks has it been nearly a week since I’ve written a blog post? Yikes!! Sorry, I didn’t mean to leave it for this long. I am NOT going to use being busy as an excuse (since I did an entire blog post about it before this) but, really, that’s probably it. But really, I have like a hundred things to edit tonight and I don’t see myself going to sleep before midnight (and I have a playdate tomorrow so can’t do it tomorrow), hence I better get cracking.

I’m going to make this a bit of a photo post, if you don’t mind! Hope you enjoy these little snippets of my life (and my gorgeous boy).

I’ll start with food because I love food. When is a burger not a burger? When it’s a Not Burger! I made a massive burger the other day with not one but two vegetarian patties and a colossal amount of condiments incuding avocado, mushrooms and a fried egg!

Over the weekend, we met up with family again at church which makes the perfect opportunity for more photos! Group shots are a bit hard as it is SO hard to keep them all still. This was probably one of our best ones:

My nephew (who is about 4 months younger than Jacob) is growing so quickly! They practically look the same size now – how gorgeous are they? I think they’re going to have so much fun playing together!

One of Jacob’s latest fascinations is the washing machine. He can sit for ages watching the clothes spin around, and loves to reach up to touch the dials. When he can actually reach the dials, I’ll just get him to do the laundry for me.

Finally, the favourite of the week – my little duet partner. I can’t believe he can already reach the piano!

On a final note, I’ve reached another milestone in my life – no, I have not been skydiving this week. Guess what? I am now a business owner!!! Well, almost…

More details about my new business in my next post (or perhaps a few posts to come, depending on how long I need to set it up properly), but I’m REALLY excited. Like I literally had butterflies in my tummy and was dying to work on the website and do a stocktake, but then all this editing work came about (and I couldn’t say no!).